Sheykh Husāmu-’d-Dīn was originally a young man who showed great respect and humility towards Shemsu-’d-Dīn, to whom he rendered services of every kind.
One day Shems said to him: “Husām, this is not the way. Religion is a question of money. Give me some coin, and offer your services to the Lord; so, peradventure, thou mayest rise in our order.”
Husām at once went forth to his own house, collected all his own valuables and money, with his wife’s jewels, and all the provisions of the house, brought them to Shems, and laid them at his feet. He furthermore sold a vineyard and country-seat he possessed, bringing their price also to his teacher, and thanking him for having taught him a duty, as also for having deigned to accept so insignificant a trifle from his hand.
“Yes, Husām,” said Shems, “it is to be hoped that, with God’s grace, and the prayers of the saints, thou wilt henceforth attain to such a station, as to be the envy of the most perfect men of God, and be bowed down to by the Brethren of Sincerity. It is true that God’s saints are not in want of anything, being independent of both worlds. But, at the outset, there is no other way to test the sincerity of one we love, and the affection of a friend, than to call upon him to sacrifice his worldly possessions. The next step is, to summon him to give up all that is not his God. No disciple who wishes to rise, has ever made progress by following his own devices. Advancement is earned by rendering service, and by spending in God’s cause. Every pupil who sacrifices possessions at the call of his teacher, would also lay down his life, if needs were. No lover of God can retain both mammon and religion.”
Shems then restored to Husām the whole of his goods, keeping back only one piece of silver. Nine times as much more did he bestow upon Husām from first to last; and, as the results of all things are in God’s hands, so did Husām at length become the ruler of God’s saints, and Jelāl made him the keeper of God’s treasury. He it was who wrote down the twenty-four thousand six hundred and sixty couplets contained in the six books of the Mesnevī.
9.
Shemsu-’d-Dīn left Qonya, at the end of his first visit, on Thursday, the twenty-first day of the month of Shawwal, A.H. 643 (14th March, A.D. 1246), after a stay of about sixteen months.
He returned to Damascus; and his departure left Jelāl in a state of great uneasiness and excitement. (Compare a conflicting date given in No. 13, further on.)
10.
Shemsu-’d-Dīn was one day at Bagdād, and entered one of the palaces there. A eunuch who saw him enter, without being himself visible, made a sign to a slave to go and drive away the mendicant.